All eyes across the NBA world will be watching closely on Tuesday night as Carmelo Anthony makes his debut for the Portland Trail Blazers and sees the court for the first time in over a year in New Orleans. After a season of getting passed over as a free agent following his brief tenure with the Rockets, Anthony has finally found a home desperate enough to give him a final chance.
The 35-year-old Anthony should slide into minutes at power forward right away for a Blazers squad desperate for help after Zach Collins underwent shoulder surgery. Without him, the Blazers have already relied heavily on the likes of Anthony Tolliver and Mario Hezonja at power forward, a losing proposition in the loaded Western Conference. The addition of Anthony (on paper) should provide another secondary creator option to help support Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum (averaging over 50 points per game). However, barring a sharp shift in morale, it’s hard to see Anthony providing a meaningful difference for this team when you go inside the numbers.
The truth is the Blazers might be a fatally flawed team already after an underwhelming postseason that was hampered by salary dumping and salary cap limitations. After dumping the likes of Mo Harkless and Meyers Leonard for a fatally flawed player in Hassan Whiteside from a defensive perspective, the team was already going to be climbing uphill when the season started. A more reliable Al-Farouq Aminu was allowed to walk in free agency as well, as the team brought in minimum salary options in Tolliver (over the hill) and Hezonja (always underwhelming). Evan Turner was sent packing for Kent Bazemore to add a scorer on the wing but Bazemore’s size and streaky shooting has made him an inefficient addition thus far. In fact, outside of second-year guard Anthony Simons and a hot start from Rodney Hood, there is truly no one to get excited about in Portland’s supporting cast.
The other concern with the Blazers is that their biggest issue is on the defensive end and Anthony will in no way help in that department. His issues on that end of the floor were bad enough for the Rockets to cast him away after 11 games and it’s hard to see him getting better offensive looks here than he got in Houston or Oklahoma City during his last two stops. Defensively, Anthony should only make the Blazers 19th-ranked defense worse and lineups featuring him and Whiteside will be huge liabilities across perimeter shooting.
The fact remains that this is a shallow team that probably isn’t talented enough with their secondary players to hang in a loaded Western Conference. They have had one of the easier schedules in the league in the midst of a 5-8 start and that combined with 38 minutes from Lillard a game hasn’t been enough to produce a winning squad. It’s good to see Anthony get one more chance after his abrupt exit in Houston but I wouldn’t expect this path to produce a happier ending for him. Anthony will provide points but should only add to the Blazers’ issues on paper.
What’s up with struggling Sixers?
The Sixers were the darlings of the NBA world two weeks ago after coming up out of the gate with a 5-0 record amid an offseason makeover. However, reality has hit again in a hurry for the top heavy roster as they’ve dropped five of their last seven games while plummeting back into the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 7-5.
The ugly early stretch has put the microscope back on Brett Brown to live up to early season projections but the question marks that developed about this team’s roster in the offseason have already come to fruition. The offensive end has been an expected struggle due to a lack of outside shooting. Joel Embiid and bench pieces have been above-average shooters thus far but the high-volume shooters have underwhelmed early on.
Al Horford is taking more 3s than ever (4.9 per game) but is only managing to knock down 31.5 percent on them. Josh Richardson is even worse at 30.5 percent while Tobias Harris has been in the midst of one of the biggest shooting slumps of his career, going 0 for 22 at one point, leaving him at a team-worst 24.5 percent from downtown. A lack of consistent production from that crew has produced the 19th best offense in the early going.
Philly’s strong defense was supposed to be what balanced out a lack of perimeter firepower but even that department has taken a hit already, dropping down to 12th in the NBA. The issue here is while there is a good deal of length within the Sixers defense, a lack of speed at several positions have made it challenging for Philly to stick with quicker offensive players and fully guard the perimeter well. They are allowing opponents to shot 37.2 percent from downtown (fourth-worst in NBA) while also allowing 28.3 free throw attempts per game (3rd-worst in NBA).
They remain an elite rebounding team and should still force plenty of turnovers with their length at every position on the floor but their flaws on that end of the floor are becoming apparent in the wrong matchups. The challenge now is how exactly the front office plans to deal with this situation. There are limited trade chips on the roster beyond draft picks now after so much money has been tied up with the Harris, Horford, Embiid and Simmons contracts. Richardson is the only valuable trade chip on the rest of the roster and he’s so crucial to their perimeter defense that it is hard to see them finding a deal that would bring back the right pieces involving him.
Without major trades potentially at a dead end, Brett Brown’s job security is worth keeping a close eye on here. He’s come under scrutiny in recent years for tough postseason and an underwhelming start may put some pressure on the front office for a dramatic change.
Other NBA news and notes
—Paul George made his season debut for Clippers this week posting a pair of 30-point games that should make Doc Rivers excited about combining him with Kawhi Leonard. The C’s get a closeup look at both stars on Wednesday night this week at the Staples Center.
—One team to keep a close eye on as trade season heats up next month: The Spurs. They are reeling right now with a 5-9 record and are a major candidate for shaking up their core after an underwhelming finish last season in the playoffs. DeMar DeRozan is in the final year of his deal (with a $27.7 million player option next year) so he could be an option for playoff team looking to upgrade their offense.
—More tough injury news for the Nets as Caris LeVert underwent thumb surgery this week that should sideline him for 4-6 weeks. Without him, Kyrie Irving is left without a reliable secondary scorer/creator in the Brooklyn starting five. Iman Shumpert was signed early this week to help the Nets fill the void after a 5-7 start.
—Other lengthy injuries around the league this week: Khris Middleton, De’Aaron Fox, Eric Gordon and D’Angelo Russell are all expected to miss at least a month of action.